


Stars

by Acting4Hope



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-07
Updated: 2015-07-02
Packaged: 2018-03-29 09:53:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3891913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Acting4Hope/pseuds/Acting4Hope
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are some people who were destined for greatness. There are also some who were destined for nothing. Peridot was one of those people, or should I say gems, who believed with all of her heart that she was destined for greatness. But not greatness in the way that it meant she would be on top. She really only wanted to be the greatest worker she could be under Yellow Diamond.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. An Unlikely Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> This was a weird idea I had while listening to the Les Mis movie soundtrack one night. We're reading Les Mis in class right now, and now that we're getting in depth with Javert's personal thoughts and junk I suddenly made a connection to him with Peridot. I hope you enjoy this weird idea of mine!!

There are some people who were destined for greatness. There are also some who were destined for nothing. Peridot was one of those people, or should I say gems, who believed with all of her heart that she was destined for greatness. But not greatness in the way that it meant she would be on top. She really only wanted to be the greatest worker she could be under Yellow Diamond.  

Peridot was _obsessed_ with her job, mainly because she was programmed to be, but also because she wanted to stand out amongst the other workers. When a mission was announced, she was the first to sign up to partake in it. Even with the simplest of tasks Peridot made sure to get everything done with precision and perfection. In her eyes, there was nothing greater than Yellow Diamond and the Homeworld. Any other configuration of being was just something to be trampled on, and any gem that went against the order of the Homeworld was considered to be just as worthless as any other being. It was all black and white in Peridot’s mind; she was the good and the just and the rest of the galaxy was the bad and the evil.

So when she was assigned to restart the Kindergarten on the planet Earth, she did not hesitate at all. She did not question why the Kindergarten had shut down in the first place. She did not question why the planet, which gems used to habitat, was now void of any gems. She did not question the history the Homeworld gems had with the planet Earth either. To her it was just another bad planet that needed to be reconfigured to the Homeworld’s image. So she sent down her droids to fix the warp pad and went along with her other business. When they kept losing contact, she did not question it nor seemed bothered by it. It was a droid, it meant nothing to her. She sent down droid after droid until one finally succeeded to reach the Kindergarten.  

She only once became mildly surprised when a small creature stepped onto the startup platform and began to try and communicate with her. It called itself “Steven” and seemed to be interested in what Peridot was doing. No matter to her though; just another pesky creature that was unworthy to even exist. So, to end the poor thing’s existence, she tried to smash it.  

Peridot’s mild surprise turned into shock when three gems stepped onto the platform to protect the creature. Gems on this planet? That isn’t right; Peridot’s information told her there were no gems on this planet any longer, and she wasn’t going to disbelieve information the Homeworld gave her. No no, this must be….this must be a mistake. Not her mistake though, those gem’s mistake. They made the mistake to live on an abandoned planet. They call themselves the “Crystal Gems”, from what the one gem has announced. Peridot did not like that; they are seceding from the Homeworld. So now they must be eliminated.

It was easy to request an escort, but the fact that she got such an experienced gem to be her escort was a shock. Yes, this one was crude and, might Peridot say, a bit too rude, but she could not argue with the fact that her escort knew the planet better than Peridot ever will. Finding the traitors again was no issue, and Peridot’s escort quickly apprehended them all and brought them onto the ship. Peridot was eager to bring the traitors back to Homeworld to have them disposed of, but her escort seemed very interested in the “Steven”. She claimed it was a weaker form of an old rival of hers and that she wanted to bring it back to Homeworld and deal with it personally. Peridot did not question the matter any further and continued to do her job.  

Everything was going fine until two of the gems and the Steven escaped, apprehending Peridot and turning the ship back to Earth. Peridot was stunned at how persistent these traitors were, but she only had enough time to react and get herself off of the ship. As her escape pod hurdled back towards Earth, Peridot turned and looked back up at the ship. All her work, all of the Homeworld’s precious resources, crashing down to some useless, unknown planet. She looked longingly at her ship and thought for a brief moment what her superiors would say about all this. Would she be blamed? No, that’s impossible. It’s not _her_ fault, it’s the _traitors_ fault. If they did not exist and ruin her mission, none of this would have happened. Just as she thought this, she was jerked forward as her escape pod crashed into the ground and smacked her head on the side of the pod. She sustained a pretty hard hit on the side of her head and barely managed to drag herself out of her pod and away from it to scope the area before losing consciousness.

Now she was lying in the far corner of a wheat field, barely able to stand, stranded with no way back home, and with no possible way of communicating with the Homeworld again. She managed to just barely shake herself free of the confides she was previously  trapped in, but she was too weak to fully pull the whip off of her. She kept reaching up to feel her gem just to make sure it wasn’t cracked or chipped. When she was satisfied with her findings, she let her arm fall limply back to the ground. She stared up at the sky and saw glittering stars in the pitch blackness. Peridot had no idea how long she had been passed out for. It could have been mere minutes, or it also could have been months.

“Curses,” She muttered under her breath, “I need to figure out how to get off this wretched planet…” Peridot looked down at her legs just to make sure they were still there, for she had lost feeling in them. She decided to get up and scope the area, since she did not have the time to do so when she first crash landed. So, she managed to get herself up and stumbled around the area, trying to find any other source of life or her escape pod. She kept walking and walking until she finally found a clearing in the field. What she saw though, shocked and perplexed her.

There was her escape pod, but it was cracked in half and broken completely. There were dents in the sides and rocks around the sides that were dented, indicating that the rocks were what caused the dents. Peridot stood stupefied for a moment before making her way over to the pod as fast as she could. She did a quick examination of the pod before stopping in front of it.

“It would appear that someone-or something, tampered with my escape pod…” She observed aloud, feeling anger build up inside, “Which means now do I not only have no way to communicate with the Homeworld, but I also have no way to get back…” She stared at the pod as she said these words slowly and with increasing levels of irritation. Suddenly, she screamed and kicked the pod, knocking the machine across the clearing. She fell to her knees and grasped her hair angrily, so hard it began to hurt.  

For the first time in her entire existence, she began to cry. Loudly. Sobs wracked her whole body as she cried. Her tears were hot as they fell down her face and onto the dirt below. She had never felt this kind of feeling before: pure, unadulterated hopelessness. She had always placed her trust in the Homeworld’s orders, but now, thanks to them, she is stranded with gems seeking to capture her. She deduced at this point that they were the ones who broke her escape pod, which meant that they were close and hunting Peridot down. She felt scared; they would more than likely imprison her once they found her, and with the condition she was in right now it would be pointless to resist. Or they could do worse. They could kill her. That thought sent a chill down her back as she lifted her head up and looked at her escape pod.

“How could everything go so horribly wrong?” Peridot asked, “My mission was so simple: Just send some droids to Earth and have them start the Kindergar-” She paused, having a sudden burst of realization.  

“The Kindergarten.” She said, standing up.  

“The Kindergarten.” She kept repeating this, her voice growing louder and her pitch getting higher.

“The Kindergarten!!” She shouted, a smile reaching her face, “I can contact Homeworld from the Kindergarten! I’ll notify them of the situation and they’ll undoubtedly send reinforcements to come retrieve me! The plan is foolproof!!” She walked around in a circle as she devised her plan: Figure out where she is, find the Kindergarten, contact Homeworld, and hide until they come. The only major problems that stood in her way at this point was her current physical state and the rebels who were after her.

“I’ll have to retreat to my gem to recuperate…” She figured, “It’s a risky move, but at this point I have no other option. I’m barely able to stand, and my head feels like its spinning. But first, I need to find a safe place to retreat to without being discovered.” She looked around the field.

“No, they’ll come back here for sure. I need to look somewhere else.” She turned and saw an open road stretching out both ways. She walked to it and turned left, being as stealthy as possible as she walked down the road to find a place.  

She walked for hours until she passed by a sign. It read “You are now entering: Beach City!” She ignored it and continued to walk. Eventually she found herself in a familiar place, it was the town where the traitors preside! She gulped and became even more stealthy. She decided to completely avoid going near the beach, and instead walked as far the other way as possible. She passed by many odd things to her, but chose to ignore them. Soon she found herself away from all the buildings and was somewhere mainly secluded. She could still see the buildings, but now they were much smaller. She deduced she was on an incline. She was surrounded by trees and overgrown grass, so she also deduced this area was uninhabited.

“Perfect…” She smiled and sat down in a pile of leaves. She got herself comfortable and looked down, inspecting the forest floor. She looked until she found a sharp rock and quickly picked it up. She tested its sharpness and, once she was satisfied, took a firm grip of it.

“This is going to hurt…” She looked away as she jabbed herself in the chest with the sharp rock. She felt a sharp pain before feeling nothing at all.

A large cloud of smoke suddenly appeared, making the nearby animals scurry away in fear. Once the smoke cleared, one would barely be able to see a green gem hidden by a large cluster of leaves.    

.

.

.

“Hey Connie, wait up!!” A voice called out as young Connie ran into the woods. Her bright red boots crunched the dead leaves beneath her as she ran past trees and jumped over rocks. She was playing tag with her friend Steven, and there was no way she was going to let him tag her and lose this game.

“Connie!!” Steven called out. Connie giggled and stopped for a moment.

“You’re too slow~!” She teased as she turned to run again. Something caught her foot though, causing her to come crashing down to the earth. She yelped as she fell, making Steven call out her name more worriedly. She lay there for a moment, collecting herself and retrieving her glasses, which had fallen off her face when she hit the ground.

“Connie, are you okay?!” Steven asked, now right in front of her. She looked up at him and laughed, getting back on her feet and brushing her dress off.

“Yeah Steven, I’m fine. I just tripped over something.” She replied. Steven sighed in relief.

“Ya know, maybe this is a sign for us to get out of here. I mean, I don’t think anyone’s ever been back here…” Steven noted, rubbing the back of his neck nervously, “And I certainly don’t think the Gems would like it if we were this far away from my house.” Connie heard Steven talking, but she was more focused on something on the ground. She took off her glasses and crouched down, reaching out for something on the ground.

“Connie, are you listening to me?!” Steven asked, a touch offended. Connie didn’t reply, but just palmed whatever she had just picked up. Steven became intrigued with what Connie was holding and peered over her shoulder.

“What are you looking at?” He asked. She looked up at him with a concerned look.

“Um, I don’t exactly know….But I think...I’m holding a gem…” She showed him the item she was holding in her hands; a shiny green gem in the shape of a triangle. Steven took gem from her hands and held it up to the light, then gasped. Connie quickly rose.

“Steven, what’s wrong?” Steven looked down at her with a look of pure delight on his chubby face. 

 

“This is Peridot’s gem!!”

 


	2. Entering the Unknown

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I wanted to make this only 2 chapters, but this ended up being waaaay longer than I expected it to be, so I'm splitting it into parts so it's not too much on you guys!!! 
> 
> I hope this chapter was worth the wait!!!

Peridot remained in her gem for what felt like a short time, but was actually several weeks. Immediately after Steven and Connie discovered Peridot’s gem in the woods, they rushed back to Steven’s house and showed the Crystal Gems. The three were quite shocked, for they had thought they searched every inch of Beach City as well as the field her escape pod was found in. Pearl’s first instinct was to bubble Peridot and leave her in the temple, but Steven protested, saying he could “make Peridot good”. Amethyst and Pearl disagreed instantaneously, but it was Garnet who eventually gave the okay for keeping Peridot. Her only reason for this being, “If Steven thinks he can change her, then we should try.”

So they made a small cell to keep her in inside the Burning Room and waited for Peridot to reform. Steven waited the most impatiently, going into the Burning Room and waiting by the cell each day for Peridot to reform. But Peridot was taking her time. It’s really been the only time she’s had to herself, and she was rather enjoying it until she remembered her plan to escape the planet Earth.  

She had many thoughts come into form as she was in her gem. Some about what was going on outside and if she was still safe, but the majority of them being about her plan after she leaves her gem. She could feel herself stronger than when she entered, so she figured her healing time was complete. Time was of the essence to Peridot, so as soon as she found herself strong and had run through her plan a few times, she left her gem.

There was a bright light suddenly illuminating the room. Steven, jarred awake by the bright light, saw what was happening and ran out of the room to find the Crystal Gems. Peridot had fully formed while Steven was away, and landed gently onto the ground. Her legs were still a bit weak from lack of use though, so she ended up falling anyway. Her vision was blurry when she first reformed, but she could feel that the ground was different from when she first retreated into her gem. It was cold and hard, nothing like the crunchy, soft bedding of the leaves she was sitting on before she went into her gem.

This realization sent an eerie chill through her body. Once she could see, she quickly looked at her surroundings. Now she was certain she was not where she was before she retreated into her gem. It was dimly lit and cavernous, the walls looking like they were made of stone but with vein-like tubes scaling up them. Peridot looked over her shoulder and, to her right, a large vat of lava was in the middle of the room, the only source of light. She scooted back, in fear of the lava bubbling and touching her, until she was backed up against one of the cell walls. She sighed shakily and looked up at the ceiling in hopes there would be some sort of opening for her to escape through. That’s when she finally saw what the top of the room was like. She gasped in horror at what she saw.

Gems. Everywhere. In tiny pink bubbles just floating on the ceiling. Gems of various shapes, sizes, and colors. Some gems looked cracked, while others were literally in shards. She had never seen such a horrid display in her entire existence, and she suddenly felt light-headed. Her body was tense and her mind was racing. Where could she be? How did she get here? Her hiding place was so elusive; she was certain no harmful life form inhabited her hiding place, so how was she found? A more important question made itself known in Peridot’s mind: Who found her and brought her here? That was a question she was not yet prepared to know the answer of.

But fate sadly did not side with Peridot’s feelings, for seconds later the entrance to the Burning Room opened and four figures came rushing in. Peridot turned to see them and, in that small moment, she would have preferred seeing her superiors coming to punish her than who she actually saw.

It was the rebels. The “Crystal Gems” with the “Steven”. The three gems looked determined and territorial, while the Steven looked excited and brimming with joy. Peridot noted how all three of the gems had their weapons out except for the Steven, who was holding several oblong objects in his hands. She backed away from the rebels until she hit another wall, a third chill wracking her body in tremors.

“Hi Peridot!” The “Steven” greeted, waving his chubby hand at Peridot. Peridot payed no attention to the creature and fixated her stare on the rebels, calculating each move they could make and determining what was the best option for her. Obviously, attacking would do no good. There were three, technically four, powerful gems that had the advantage of knowing their surroundings better than Peridot does. Escape is an option, but Peridot would have to find the most opportune moment to escape, and she doubted that moment would ever happen in the near future. The only plausible option she had, for now, was to just go along with whatever these traitors wanted and hope that they won’t kill her before her escape option becomes available.

“I’m so glad you’re back Peridot! You missed soooo much while you were gone! Well, not really anything, but still!! I can’t wait for you to meet everyone!!” The Steven said, cutting off Peridot’s thoughts as it bounded over to the cell and dropped the items in its hands. Peridot looked cautiously down at the objects. They appeared to be filled with other small objects, and Peridot could read the words “Citchen Calamity” on one of the objects. The Steven walked directly up to the bars and looked at Peridot intensely.

“Awww, you didn’t change your outfit!” The Steven whined, but didn’t seem to be affected by it for long. He turned back to the rebels and pouted.

“Can’t we let her out now?” It asked, causing all three of them to gasp.

“Absolutely not!” One of them, Peridot noted from her gem that she was a Pearl, protested. “She is dangerous and unpredictable!” Peridot tried not to snort at her comment. Dangerous? Maybe; only in certain situations. Unpredictable? Absolutely not. Peridot was strictly a by-the-book gem. Not only was it what she preferred doing, but it was also law. If she went off the book on a mission she was certain she would be punished, or even killed, for her insubordinance.

“But she’s been in there for _weeks_!” The creature whined, trying to feign some sort of concern for Peridot. She didn’t buy it.

“Ya know, for once I’m gonna go with Pearl.” The shortest gem added in, “We have no idea what her _or_ the Homeworld is planning. I think we should just leave her in there until she gives up the Homeworld’s plans for Earth…” If Peridot was in less of a dangerous situation, she would have noted that she was not hiding the Homeworld’s plans for Earth at all and she had no problem with telling them. She would have also added that there was nothing they could do to stop it anyway, so what is the point of hiding that information. But she was in a very dangerous situation and she didn’t think her comment would help her at all, so she kept quiet.

“But Amethyst, just look at how miserable she is in there!” The Steven stuck its hand through the bars to gesture at Peridot, who was jostled from her thoughts by the hand suddenly pointing at her through the cell.  

 

“That doesn’t matter!” The Pearl stepped in once more, “She is dangerous and we are keeping her in there until further notice! Now I don’t want to hear any more whining about it!” The Steven sighed in defeat and turned back to Peridot, who seemed unaffected by the decision. In truth, she expected she was going to be in the cell for a while, so all this decision did was prove her theory. Peridot continued to look at the rebels as the fusion stepped toward the Steven and knelt down in front of it.

“Listen Steven, we can’t let her out just yet...Not until we establish some proper rules first.” She then looked directly at Peridot and stood. Peridot watched her get rid of her gauntlets and open up the cell door. Peridot quickly stood up, not wanting to be corned in a vulnerable position, and bravely met the fusion’s stare. The fusion continued to walk until she stopped directly in front of Peridot.

“For one, I want to make this very _very_ clear: we are _not_ , in any way shape or form, granting you your freedom. You are to always remain on this beach and in sight of the temple. You are also never allowed to step foot on a warp pad or try and enter any of the other rooms in the temple besides this one. Do not think for even a second that you are not under careful watch. Even if you do not see Pearl, Amethyst, or myself, one of us _will_ be watching you at all times. Aside from us watching you, you will also always be escorted by Steven if you are leaving the temple. You are never to try and talk with the other humans of this city or try and contact any other gems. You will also be in charge of Steven, so if he is found hurt it will be on _you_. Your life with us will be simple: You will stay in this cell until Steven wakes up and retrieves you. You will spend the whole day with Steven until the sun begins to set. Once that happens, you are to report back to the temple where Pearl, Amethyst, and I will lead you back to this room and put you back in your cell. We will give you the opportunity to provide us with any sort of information about the Homeworld’s plans at that time, and if you do so you will find that your life here will be filled with many more freedoms. We expect you to follow this schedule and these rules every single day for the rest of your time on this planet. And if you do so choose to break a rule, even a small one,” At this time she bent down to get closer to Peridot’s face. She took off her glasses and stared directly into Peridot’s eyes.

“ _I will not hesitate to add you to the collection of smashed, cracked, and broken gems that float above this room. Take this as your one and only warning._ ” She finished with that open threat, making Peridot shudder. She looked up at the bubbled gems and wondered how many others were in the same situation as she was before they were bubbled.

“Do you understand the rules as I have given them to you?” The fusion asked and Peridot nodded slowly.

“I understand.” Peridot replied. The fusion put her glasses back on and stepped away from Peridot.

“Good.” The fusion walked out of the cell and closed the door once more, “We will begin this routine tomorrow, but for now,” She turned to the Steven and patted its head, “it’s time for a certain someone to go to sleep.” The Steven’s eyes widened and he began whining once more.

“Aw but Garnet, she just reformed! I wanna spend time with her!” It protested.

“And you will, tomorrow. But it’s very late now, and you haven’t been sleeping much lately.” The fusion pushed the creature back to the entrance of the room and opened it, scooting it through. Once the Steven was out of sight, the three rebels turned to Peridot with cold stares, their weapons all drawn.

“Goodnight Peridot.” The fusion said, then they were gone. The room was dark once more with the lava pit being the only source of light. Peridot still stood frozen in place, the fusion’s threat still burning in her mind. She dared to look back up at the bubbled gems above her again and let the words play in her head.

“I’ll...end up like them...if I don’t follow every rule…” Peridot mumbled aloud as she stared up at the glowing pink orbs. Her legs began to tremble and soon enough she crashed to the floor, her form hunched over as more trembles racked her body. She felt like crying, but now was not the time to show weakness. No, she had to survive this hell for as long as possible until either Homeworld discovered her absence or she found a way to escape.  

She sat back up and leaned against the cell walls. She closed her eyes and tried to picture Homeworld in all its glory just so she could escape her thoughts. For a fleeting moment she thought of the prisoner, Lapis Lazuli, and her escort, Jasper. Were they alright? The ship had gone down, so obviously they were not able to make it to Homeworld. Maybe the prisoner could, with her ability and all, but she didn’t know about her escort.

“She’s probably fine,” Peridot thought aloud, “She seemed to show a general knowledge of this planet, and with her strength I doubt she can be easily overpowered.” That thought almost seemed reassuring. Maybe if Jasper was able to leave this planet, she’ll come back for Peridot.

No. No, that wouldn’t happen. Jasper was a cocky gem who only ever thought of herself and the Homeworld’s victories. One gem lost on one useless planet wouldn’t bother her one bit. She’d probably just go back to her business of barking orders at weaklings and grumbling about how the rest of the galaxy has gone to dirt.

Without really even realizing it, Peridot had shut her eyes whilst thinking. And before she could stop, she had fallen into a deep sleep. 

. 

. 

.

Steven had awoke bright and early the next morning, eager to let Peridot out of her cell. Last night had shocked and surprised him to the core, but he wasn’t so sure the other gems were happy about it. It was the first time in a while that he could actually feel the tension in a room, and also the first time he ever heard Garnet become very stern with someone as well.

No matter, Steven was only concerned about letting Peridot out at this point and spending the whole day with her. He had originally planned on inviting Connie over to meet Peridot, since she was the real reason Peridot was found, but by the time Peridot reformed it was too late to invite Connie over the next day.

“Maybe once they see how good Peridot can be, they’ll be nicer to her and we can have even more fun!” Steven thought aloud as he threw off his covers and jumped off his bed. He quickly put on his clothes and raced downstairs.

“And maybe Peridot will see how great the Earth is and not want to destroy it anymore!” He said enthusiastically as he ran to the entrance to the temple. He stood directly in front of the door, squirming impatiently. Suddenly, the door opened, causing Steven to let out an excited squeak, as Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl all entered the house.

“Oh, Steven! You’re up rather early today.” Pearl noted.

“Mornin’ Steven!” Amethyst greeted nonchalantly.

“Goodmorning Steven, how did you sleep?” Garnet asked as she ruffled his hair affectionately. Steven giggled at his hair being touched and moved Garnet’s hand off of his head.

“Can I go let Peridot out now?!” Steven asked excitedly. The three gems’ moods immediately dropped and the room was filled with a tense and uncomfortable feeling. Steven ignored it though, for his eagerness to see Peridot blocked out all rationality. Pearl looked uneasy, Amethyst looked nervous, and Garnet looked the same, but the air around her was full of anger and fear at the same time.

“Is that the reason why you are up so early?” Pearl asked and Steven responded with a fervent nod.

“I couldn’t sleep much last night! I just kept thinking of all the things I can do with Peridot and all the cool stuff I can show her to make her like the Earth!” Steven shouted gleefully. Pearl looked at Garnet uneasily. Garnet stepped forward and knelt down to Steven’s level. She placed her hand on top of his head again, but this time it was a tad less affectionate and a tad more forceful.

“Steven, do you remember all the rules I gave Peridot last night?” Garnet asked, and Steven nodded slowly in response. 

 

“Good. Because these same rules also apply to you as well.” Garnet added, causing Steven to gasp. 

 

“What?!” Steven asked in shock, “That’s no fair!” 

 

"It is very fair,” Garnet replied in her same tone of voice, “You’re the one who wanted to keep her around, so you have to follow the same rules as she does. With some minor exceptions. When you are with Peridot, you are not to leave the view of the temple. You are also to never show Peridot any of the inhabitants of Beach City, nor will you be allowed to tell anyone of Peridot’s existence. Connie is an exception to this rule, since she is the whole reason we were able to find Peridot, but Connie is still not allowed to see Peridot. When the sun sets, you are to bring Peridot back to the temple and give her directly to us.”   

 

Steven stood there dumbfounded as Garnet rose and took her hand off of Steven’s head. He couldn’t believe that he wasn’t allowed to tell anyone about Peridot. He was so excited to introduce her to everyone, but now those dreams were crushed with just one sweep of the hand. 

 

“Do you understand everything I have just told you Steven?” Garnet asked, and Steven nodded gloomily in response. She smiled and ruffled his hair again, but he bitterly pushed her hand off. Pearl and Amethyst didn’t bother to contribute to the discussion and merely just went about their business as Garnet opened the temple doors to the Burning Room. Steven walked past Garnet and through the door. 

 

As soon as the door shut behind him, he turned and looked at Peridot’s cell. She appeared to be sleeping, but Steven knew that gems didn’t need sleep. He smiled at the sight of her and tried to pick his mood back up as he quickly bounded over to her cell. When he got to the door, he noticed there was a key halfway under a stone not too far away from the cell. Steven figured Garnet must have left it there for him, so he grabbed it and quickly opened up the cell. 

 

“Peridot~” Steven called out, “Wake up Peridot! It’s morning!” Steven hoped that maybe he could help Peridot and, in turn, help Peridot gain the Crystal Gems’ trust.  


	3. Secrets Revealed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey hey hey!! Next chapter! I'd just thought I'd get out all the lil sections together that I've made already. Just so I don't get caught up or left behind in my own work!!! 
> 
> Oh btw, if y'all like this (or better yet, my work) feel free to tell me!! I love when people comment on my work!! Don't be shy!! (I'm sorry if this sounds needy but it gets really hard to write when you feel like no one's going to read it anyway)

Peridot heard a noise as she slowly regained consciousness.

“...dot,” She tried to focus on who was talking, but she wasn’t quite there yet.

“Per...dot,” Was it trying to call for her? Who would be calling her name? She opened her eyes and looked in front of her. She shouted when she saw a fleshy face directly in front of hers. She gripped the bar behind her and tried to calm herself as the face backed away from her with a giggle.

“Did I scare ya?” Peridot recognized that voice immediately. It was that little creature the rebels had with them, the “Steven”. She calmed down immediately after that, realizing it was no threat to her, and rolled her eyes. The little creature continued to giggle.

“Morning Peridot!” The Steven greeted, “Did you sleep well?” Peridot barely processed she _had_ fallen asleep. One minute she was lost in her thoughts and the next this creature was in front of her face.

“I...suppose you could say I did…” She replied. The Steven seemed pleased by that and approached her again.

“Well I’m glad for that ‘cause today is gonna be full of adventure, and I wouldn’t want you to get tired during it!” It cheered. Peridot remembered the rules to her life here and tried not to groan; she was going to be stuck with this little imbecile every day until sundown. This felt more like torture than what would happen to her if she rebelled against this rule.

“Hooray.” She said unenthusiastically, getting onto her feet and looking down at the creature. It was so tiny, she was surprised it hadn’t died yet. Or at least been violently mauled. The Steven squealed in delight and grabbed her arm, quickly leading her out of the cell and through the temple door.

When they left the temple, Peridot recognized that they were in some sort of facility. Like a housing unit, but more rustic and cramped-looking. The rebels were there, all three of them on some seating object, staring directly at her. Their weapons were drawn. Peridot made her best attempt to avoid their glares, but her efforts were fruitless. The Steven somehow managed to ignore their glares and continued to drag Peridot through the facility and out of the little door in the front.

Once they were outside, Peridot recognized the little piece of land in front of her, otherwise known as a beach. She had landed with Jasper and the prisoner here not too long ago, but in spite of what has happened since then it feels like an eternity ago to Peridot. She could see the sun just barely rising over the horizon, signaling it was early morning. Peridot turned to the Steven.

“What could we possibly do this early?” She asked, not out of general excitement but really more out of curiosity. The Steven grinned and led her down the steps and onto the beach. He brought her right up to where the water touches the dry earth and sat down, then motioned for her to do so as well. She sat down cautiously, not exactly sure as to what was going to happen next. The Steven turned toward the sun and just gazed upon it, not saying anything. Peridot was stuck sitting there awkwardly wondering just what the heck it was they were doing.                   

“What is it exactly that we are doing right now?” Peridot asked at last.

“Watching the sun rise.” The Steven replied casually. Peridot was slightly perplexed at this, but she just turned to the front and watched the sun with it. There wasn’t much else she could do, though this was one of the most optimal times to escape. She didn’t dare to though; she could feel the fusion’s eyes on her like knives piercing through her back.

Peridot settled for watching the sun rise up into the sky. She was actually quite awed at the beauty of it. Back on Homeworld, she was so invested in her work that she could barely recognize time anymore. Now she had no work and plenty of time to do trivial things like watching a hot ball of gases rise into view.

“Pretty, isn’t it?” The creature’s voice broke Peridot from her thoughts. She turned to him, but he was still facing the sky, so she just turned back.

“I will have to admit that it is a rather beauteous sight, but I am still confused as to why we are doing this.” Peridot replied. The Steven turned to face her with a grin.

“So you can see the beauty of Earth! This happens every single morning Peridot! Every _single_ morning of every _single_ day this sun comes up for everyone on Earth to see! Isn’t that incredible? Isn’t it fascinating to you? Don’t you want to stay longer just to watch it go up? To see the beauty in all the Earth!?” The Steven blurted out, waving its hands every which way.

Peridot stared at the Steven plainly, but in her mind she was a tad shocked. Was this really all it wanted to do? Was this its entire plan? To make her like the Earth and not want to leave? That’s _it_? Peridot suddenly thought her life here was going to become much easier. To love this planet would mean she’d have to denounce her own, and never in a million years would she ever do that. She was a loyal gem to the Homeworld, and that was all she was ever going to be. Her greatness shines bright through the Homeworld. Without the Homeworld, she was just as useless and weak as this chubby little creature sitting beside her. The Homeworld was her shining beacon of hope in this desolate situation. This little creature’s plan had failed just as he initiated it.

“That’s it?” Peridot asked rhetorically, “Well, let us carry on then.” And with that, she turned back to the sky and watched the sun slowly make its way to its proper place. The Steven turned back, and Peridot figured it had thought it was making a difference, but in reality it was not. She wasn’t going to _tell_ it that though; she’d rather it _see_ that when she escapes this planet and comes back with more reinforcements to claim this planet for Homeworld.

They sat there and watched the horizon until the sun was high in the sky. The Steven suddenly rose and faced Peridot.

“Come on! Time’s a wastin’!! We gotta have as much fun as possible before sunset!!” It cheered. Peridot slowly got up and followed the running creature back up to the temple. They both stopped outside the entrance to the facility attached to the temple and the Steven turned back to face Peridot.

“Now wait out here!” It commanded before opening the door and running inside. She stood stiff outside the door for no less than a minute before the Steven burst through the door with a bunch of objects piled high in its arms. It threw them onto the ground in front of Peridot. Objects of different shapes, sizes, and colors lay before her feet as the Steven sifted through them. It picked up a flat, circular object in its hands and handed it to Peridot.

“Let’s go play Frisbee!” It shouted gleefully. Suddenly, it dashed down the steps and onto the sand with the object. Peridot did not fully understand what this “Frisbee” was and how you play it, but she had to do it anyway. So why question it at this point? With that thought in her mind, she walked down to where the Steven was and had it explain Frisbee to her.

The game, in Peridot’s opinion, was absolutely no fun at all. The object, known as a “Frisbee”, was a plastic ring with curved edges that you toss back and forth. Problem is, Peridot has no real upper body strength, so all of her tosses were either too short to reach the Steven or to off to the side. The Steven had plenty of upper body strength and tossed the Frisbee to her with ease. With _too_ much ease, might she want to point out. So much ease that she if she turned her head for a second and then turned back she’d be hit directly in the face by the Frisbee. Not to mention, if the rare moment arose when she actually tried to catch the Frisbee, her fingers would clamp down on it and the Frisbee would keep flying.  Then she’d have to go over and grab the Frisbee as well as her detached fingers.

Thankfully for her, this little game managed to kill a whole lot of time, and before she knew it the sun was starting to sink back into the horizon. The Steven was reluctant to stop playing with Peridot, but once Garnet stepped out of the temple and looked at them, it said goodbye to Peridot and walked back inside. Peridot followed calmly behind, stopping at the doorway to look back at the sun. It was a pretty sight indeed. Too bad she won’t be seeing it for too much longer.

The rebels didn’t spend long talking to Peridot. They asked her the same kind of questions you’d expect from an interrogation. “Why did you come here?” “What is Homeworld’s plans for Earth?” “Will Homeworld notice your absence?” Questions like that were tossed back and forth from the three rebels.

 

Peridot never gave a clear answer to any of them. In fact, the only answer she gave was a very simple “You guys know the answer to these questions, so I don’t get why you’re asking them.”

Short, vague, and sweet. Just how she liked it.

The rebels left in a huff, thus leaving Peridot in that lonely room once more.

“Well, that was a lot easier than I expected it to be.” Peridot noted to herself quietly, kicking a pebble around absentmindedly, “I expected them to use some sort of brute force. At the very least, I thought there would be threats.” Peridot smiled.

“I guess they aren’t as strong as they’ve made themselves out to be.” With that thought in her mind, she decided to sleep the rest of the night away.

The next day went just about the same. The Steven came and woke her up, brought her outside, and sat her down to watch the sunrise. The only difference in this morning routine was that the Steven talked to Peridot a lot more. It talked about the other humans it interacted with, such as the “Connie” and the “Lars”. Apparently the Connie was the one who had found Peridot’s gem in the woods. Peridot made a mental note to make this particular human’s death the most brutal when Homeworld finally took over this wretched planet.

After the sun had found its rightful place in the sky, the Steven ran back inside to find another game to play. Peridot hoped it was not another object-tossing game. She was happy when the Steven ran out with something that looked like it could not be used in physical activity. The Steven sat down on the porch and told Peridot it was a “book” and that you read things in it. Peridot summed it up to a very archaic version of the databases she had back on Homeworld. She scanned her eyes over the title of the book. It was called “The Unfamiliar Familiar”. The Steven explained that it was fiction, and Peridot immediately questioned the point of its existence then.

“Well, it’s for fun!” That was the Steven’s only reason. That it was “fun”. And from that point, the Steven opened the book and began reading it to Peridot. Peridot found halfway through that it was not “fun”, but it was a good time to get a look of her surroundings. There was really only one way off this beach though, so she just settled for staring up at the sky and hoping either Homeworld suddenly found her or someone put her out of her misery.

Eventually the Steven stopped reading and looked up at Peridot.

“Soooo, how are you liking the story so far?” It asked. Peridot snapped out of her little trance and looked at the Steven.

“Oh, right. The book,” She said uninterested, “Yes yes it’s wonderful. Absolutely marvelous.”

“Have you even been paying attention?!” The Steven whined.

“No, I haven’t.” Peridot replied plainly. The Steven sighed and put the book down.

“Why are you being so uncooperative? I’m trying to help you!” The Steven asked. Peridot gave it a snide look.

“ _Help_ me? If you wanted to _help_ me you’d tell me either where my escort and my prisoner are, or you’d get me to the Kindergarten so I can contact Homeworld and get _home_. Not sit here and read a book to me.” She stated, shooting venom into her words. The Steven looked down at its hands and sighed once more.

“Well…..I can’t bring you to the Kindergarten, but I can tell you where Jasper and Lapis are…” It said glumly. Peridot’s eyes widened, her attention peaking.

“Really?” She asked in disbelief, “Where are they? Tell me now!” The Steven looked up at Peridot, little tears brimming up in the corner of its eyes, and pointed. Peridot turned her whole body in the direction of its finger and saw it was pointing at the ocean. She turned back around confused.

“All I see is the ocean.” She said.

“Exactly.” The Steven replied. Peridot couldn’t register what it meant.

“What exactly...does that mean? Are they... _in_ the ocean?” She asked, feeling like she was grasping at nothing with her questions. Unfortunately for her, she was right on the money, for the Steven nodded in response. Peridot gasped.

“W-What?! But...But how!? They wouldn’t _willingly_ just jump into the ocean!” She shouted, “You’re lying to me! I-I know you are! Where are they?! Tell me now!” The Steven fiddled with its hands nervously.

“W-Well, they wouldn’t do it willingly _by themselves_ , but what if they did it willingly _together_? No-that’s wrong. Jasper didn’t want to...B-But she wasn’t in control! Ah! W-What I mean is-” The Stevens babbling ceased once Peridot stood up and grabbed hold of its shirt collar. She crouched down to its eye level and narrowed her eyes.

“ _What. Happened._ ” She whispered harshly. The Steven gulped.

“Well, we had just crash landed, and I thought everything was alright! But then Jasper came out from the rubble! A-And she was mad ‘cause she lost her fight with Garnet! So she freaked out saying she’d be able to beat Garnet if she had someone to fuse with. And then Lapis came out of the rubble too! Jasper took hold of her a-and forced her to fuse! Well, not exactly force, but she still did it in a pretty mean way! Lapis and Jasper fused, but then Lapis’ personality took hold of the fusion and sent her down to the bottom of the sea! They’re both still fused under there, from what me and the gems can figure. I mean, Garnet goes down every day to look for them or even signs of them. But so far we’ve gotten nothing…” The Steven explained, dropping its head to let a few tears fall. Peridot remained in her position, completely aghast at what she had heard.

“F-Fused? S-So that means...Jasper didn’t return to Homeworld…” Peridot mumbled, letting her hand drop from the Steven’s shirt and hang limply at her side. She suddenly fell onto her butt, but seemed unaffected by it. Her face was ridden with confusion and despair, the first of many deep despairing moments in her time to come.

She didn’t do much the rest of that day. Or the seven days after that. At one point, she didn’t even leave her cell. It just took so long to process in her mind that she was literally and quite honestly **_stranded_** on this planet.

**_Stranded_**. That’s the first time she’s thought of that word in regards to her situation.   

**_Stranded_**. The only coherent thought that passed through her mind in that week was that single word.

“I’m... _ **stranded**_ …” She thought aloud, her voice weak and quivering from lack of use. She felt tears begin to stream down her face, but she didn’t bother to wipe them away. She let them fall freely onto the cold, hard ground as she silently wept her days away. The only sort of coping she had left at this point was that Homeworld was bound to notice the three gems’ absence, especially since Jasper is such a high-ranking gem. They’re bound to send more gems to this planet soon, and then Peridot could go home.

**_Home_**. That’s another word that stuck out in her head.

**_Home_**. She missed home. Even if she worked each day away until she could barely separate her own thoughts from the data she processed, she still loved and devoted her whole existence to her home.

_**Home**_. Her home is all she had left in the galaxy. Her beacon of light in this miserable existence. The only reason she lived was for the glory of Homeworld and the justice she held so dearly to. The justice that if Homeworld says you are guilty, then you are guilty. If Homeworld wants your planet, you give it up. If Homeworld wants your population erased, then you will willingly hand your race over for annihilation. She clung to this idea of black and white. Of wrong and right. Of good and evil. Of Homeworld and everything else so dearly to her heart that it was all she knew. All she based her ideals off of. This glory and nothingness was her yin and yang. Her perspective in life was all black and white.

 **  
** But sadly, the world has always been a horrible, never-ending shade of gray. And Peridot will soon come to learn that.


	4. The Dreaded Color Gray

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys are liking this so far! This has honestly been one of the only works that I can read through and go "ooohhhh my goooood i love it" 
> 
> Also I apologize if all the chapter titles are a bit cheesy/cliche. I can't honestly think of anything else to call them.

It was over a week since the incident with Peridot, and Steven felt it was time to start trying to push her back into the outdoors. He felt that if she left her in her cell forever that she would never want to come out, and he didn’t want that at all. He got up early, as per usual with Peridot being here, and bounded down the steps to the temple door.

Garnet opened the door as soon as Steven got near it, and he jumped back in surprise.

“Mornin’ Garnet!” Steven greeted cheerfully. Garnet looked down at him and smiled.

“Good morning Steven. Here to see Peridot?” She replied. Steven nodded.

“I thought giving her a week to process the whole Jasper and Lapis thing was enough time before she was able to properly function in society once more!” He explained. Garnet crouched down to his level and ruffled his hair.

“I think that’s enough time as well. But remember the rules Steven. _No_ bringing her away from the temple and _no_ showing her to other humans.” Steven nodded at Garnet’s reminder. She kissed his forehead and stood. “Also, try to go easy on her,” She added, “Peridot might still be trying to process things and may be susceptible to breakdowns if you tell her any more information.” Steven nodded at that as well and Garnet let him through the door into the Burning Room.

He quickly entered and, upon entry, saw Peridot’s lonely form crouched in the fetal position in the corner of her cell. An icy gloom hung like icicles in the room, and Steven could hear Peridot mumbling incoherent babble to herself. He felt absolutely dreadful for leaving her in here for so long, and now that feeling grew as he saw her in this condition. He took slow, careful steps toward her cell.

“P-Peridot…?” He called out timidly, “Are...you alright?” Peridot suddenly rolled over and faced Steven. Her eyes looked hollow and red, while her face was rigid and pale. Steven held back a gasp and smiled meekly, opening the door to her cell and stepping slowly inside.

“Why are you here?” Peridot croaked out, her voice hoarse. Steven sat down where he stood and scratched the back of his neck nervously.

“Well...I came to let you out! It’s been over a week since uh...since you got the news...So I thought maybe now it would be best to let you out…” He explained, reaching a hand out to Peridot, “You, uh, want help up?”

Peridot took his hand. Steven felt a small part of him jump for joy as he stood and used all of his strength to lift her up on her feet. She stood beside him, her legs quivering violently from lack of use, and almost immediately toppled back down to the floor. Steven gasped and quickly helped her back up again; this time her legs managed to keep her up.

“Th...Thank you…” Peridot whispered. Steven smiled brightly and helped her out of the Burning Room.

When they both entered the house, all eyes turned toward them. Steven could see Pearl drop her tea cup, Amethyst drop her plate of food, and Garnet remove her glasses. He looked at them nervously, then looked up at Peridot. She didn’t seemed fazed by their shocked stares.

“My word…” Pearl muttered under her breath. Steven walked with Peridot to the front door, but Peridot lost her footing and collapsed halfway there. Steven fell along with her, and almost as soon as his body hit the floor the gems were on them.

“S-Steven!” Pearl gasped. She helped Steven to his feet and pulled him away from Peridot. Garnet pulled Peridot up on her feet and lead her to the couch. Peridot lay limp on the couch as Garnet felt her head. She turned to Amethyst and Pearl.

“She’s delirious,” Garnet reported, “She must’ve been affected by her breakdown physically as well as mentally, and her physical form became weak.”

“Is there any way we can fix her?” Steven asked. Garnet looked back at Peridot. She was smiling weakly and mumbling to herself.

“No. We’re going to have to bubble her.” Garnet concluded. Steven squeaked in horror as Garnet took out her gauntlets. She turned back to Peridot and raised one of her fists. Peridot looked up at Garnet, her smile growing. Pearl and Amethyst held Steven back as he writhed around, trying to break free to save Peridot.  

“Thank...you…” Peridot croaked out, her eyes closing peacefully as if she was awaiting death with open arms. Garnet took a step forward and let her hand swoop down to connect with Peridot’s face.

In that moment, you could very faintly hear the sound of crying coming from within that room. But it wasn’t from Steven.

“STOP!!!” This, however, did come from Steven, who had broken free from Pearl and Amethyst’s grasp and leaped in front of Peridot. Garnet’s fist stopped instantaneously, the tip of her gauntlet just barely touching Steven’s nose.

“Steven!” Pearl called out, half in scolding and half in fear.

“I won’t let you hurt Peridot!” Steven declared, “She’s my friend, and I’ll protect her to the very end!” Garnet sent away her gauntlets and backed up. She seemed content, not wanting to overpower Steven at all. Pearl went to argue, but Garnet held her hand up, signaling silence. Steven looked upon her with a sure stare, and Garnet nodded in approval.

He turned around and looked at Peridot. He examined each part of her sickly body, desperate to find an answer to why she looked so ill. Then he saw it.

The tiniest of cracks was present in the middle of her gem. He gasped in realization and whipped back around to the gems.

“She doesn’t need to be bubbled, she needs to be healed!” He cried out.

“What? Why?” Pearl questioned.

“Because her gem is cracked!” He said, motioning for the gems to come closer. “See! Look at her gem!” The three gems leaned in close and inspected her gem.

“My word, her gem is cracked!” Pearl exclaimed, “I mean, it’s not that much, but it’s enough to put her in this kind of state.”

“She must’ve sustained a small injury to her gem when she landed on Earth.” Garnet concluded.

“Yeah! And from all this crazy, freak-out stress, her gem must have also became stressed. Which stressed on the injury and made the crack appear!” Amethyst added in. Steven nodded giddily, happy that everyone was able to realize the fault in their assumptions.

“Well, it seems to me that we have to fix her, correct?” Pearl stated, “She hasn’t really given us any information on what Homeworld has planned for us, and I would rather have someone here that understood all their new technology.”

“She’s an asset to us now,” Garnet said, “and we need to protect her like she’s one of our own.”

“Wait,” Amethyst said, “We’re actually considering helping her out?! But she’s a Homeworld gem! She’s only here to ensure our destruction! Why keep her around? She’s only going to hinder us!”

“I never said we were _considering_ protecting her Amethyst,” Garnet replied, walking over to Peridot and picking her up bridal style, “I said we _are_ protecting her. Regardless of what her past intentions were for us, she is now our responsibility to keep safe. She has nowhere to run, and it would be better for us if we had some intel regarding Homeworld’s new technology. And if she doesn’t willingly help us, that’s fine. It’s not her choice. She’s our prisoner, and she’ll do what we say. But for now, she’s our teammate, and we need to help her.”

Garnet looked down at Steven and smiled.

“Steven, do you want to try your healing powers again?” She asked, and Steven beamed. Garnet lowered Peridot to Steven’s level as he licked the palm of his hand thoroughly. Once he was done with that, he looked up at Peridot with a goofy grin.

“Healing powers, go!” He exclaimed, slapping his spit-covered hand onto Peridot’s gem. He held it there for a moment with no reaction from the gem. Just as he was about to give up and remove his hand, Peridot’s gem started to glow. Steven gasped and retracted his hand.

The crack in Peridot’s gem began to disappear. As it was disappearing, Peridot’s face began to look less sickly, and a course of energy was beginning to build up inside of her. Through the final moments of light, the crack had disappeared completely and Peridot was healed.

.

.

.

Peridot felt her body become less limp and lifeless. She didn’t know why, but she didn’t feel weak anymore. Her head felt clear, and her body rejuvenated. With a jolt, her eyes shot open and her body lurched from its previous position. She felt herself land on the floor with a thud. She quickly recovered from it and darted her head around.

She saw all three of the rebels and the Steven staring at them with mixed emotions. The skinny gem looked shocked, the short gem looked surprised, the Steven looked pleased. And the fusion.

Well, the fusion looked like the fusion.

“What’s going on? Why are you all staring at me with such...mixed faces?” Peridot asked. The Steven was bouncing up and down in delight and quickly sprung into action once she had asked that.

“Your gem cracked!” It shouted with joy, “And I saved you!” Peridot’s eyebrows furrowed. Her gem cracked? When did that happen? She tried to think back to a point where she was seriously injured, but her mind could only go back to the crash. If the crash was what had caused the crack, then wouldn’t she have been dead by now? This thought stuck out in her mind as she tried to process the situation.

“Cracked? How? I haven’t done anything lately to injure my gem.” Peridot questioned. The fusion stepped forward and stuck out her hand, helping Peridot to her feet.

“You put severe stress in one area of your gem when you crashed, and due to the amount of stress you put yourself through recently the stressed area became a crack. Which is why you became so sick in the cell.” The fusion explained. Peridot reached up and felt her gem. She ran her fingers over every area, but could not find a single crack.

“Well, if my gem cracked, then why do I feel no crack in it?” She asked.

“Like I said, I saved you!!” The Steven jumped in, its eyes still lit up in merriment. Peridot looked skeptically down at the little creature. She scoffed and bent down to its level.

“And how, might I ask, did _you_ do that?” Peridot asked sarcastically. The Steven beamed and licked its palm and then showed it to Peridot.

“I have healing spit!!” It exclaimed. Peridot looked at the Steven questionably before the skinny gem stepped in.

“Steven has healing powers in his spit that he got from his mother. Well, her powers were contained in her tears, but I guess that changed when she gave up her form to make Steven.” She explained. Peridot thought about that statement for a moment before gasping in horror. She quickly lifted up the bottom of the Steven’s shirt to prove the other gem wrong, but what she saw stopped her thoughts in her tracks.

A bright, shiny, pink gem in the exact position that Rose Quartz’ was. Peridot didn’t know much about this infamous Rose Quartz, but everything she did know about her struck fear into her very soul. The power she contained in her tears and in her gem was talked about for millennia after she had seceded from Homeworld. The tales Peridot had read about the great war had made Rose Quartz out to be a powerful force to be reckoned with. Jasper had mentioned Rose Quartz briefly on the way to Earth, Peridot had recalled, for they had fought against one another in the war.

“You’re trying to tell that this _thing_ ,” Peridot pointed at the Steven, “is Rose Quartz?”

“Well, he’s more or less the _son_ of Rose Quartz, but technically yes...he is Rose Quartz…” The skinny gem admitted. Peridot turned back to the Steven and she felt her body quiver again.

To see such power compressed into this short, pathetic creature was disgusting to Peridot. But it also terrified her. At any given moment, this little creature could have easily killed Peridot, but it didn’t. It could have let Peridot’s gem keep cracking until she was just a pile of gem shards, but it didn’t. It _healed_ her. But why?

“Why? Why would you heal me?” Peridot muttered to the Steven, “I’m your prisoner. I’m nothing more than a hindrance to you and your mission. So why would you keep me alive? Is this a torture tactic?! Are you trying to gain my trust so you can dispose of me later?! What’s going on here?!” The Steven approached Peridot and wrapped its arms around her torso.

“Because you’re not our _prisoner_ ,” It said, “You’re our _friend_! Our _teammate_! And we don’t let friends die!” Peridot’s whole body froze at those words.

_Not a **prisoner**. A **friend**. A **teammate**._ This creature. This powerful creature. This almighty little creature considers Peridot a...friend?

Her mind couldn’t process it. Her mind _rejected_ it outright.

To be a friend to the rebels means to be an enemy to Homeworld, and that was going against everything she learned. Everything she ever _knew_. Her views of right and wrong, of black and white, of good and evil, were blurring for the first time.

These gems were giving her _mercy_. Mercy is practically prohibited on Homeworld. On Homeworld, you don’t hold back. On Homeworld, you go with protocol.

But none of this was protocol. This was all new to Peridot. All of these unknown thoughts suddenly rising up in her head terrified and excited her. She wanted to have her own separate feelings, but she also was afraid of what the consequences of those feelings would be.

What if she thought about going against Homeworld? What if she thought about joining these rebels? To give up everything she’s ever known just to follow blind faith and a little mercy. To go out on a whim and follow her thoughts, not her protocol. To _lose her trust and faith in Homeworld_.

 

Peridot shook at these thoughts.

 

Her black and white world had just experienced its first encounter with the dreaded color **gray**.


	5. Epiphany

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!! It's been a coupe weeks since I last posted a chapter, sorry about that! It's been a bit hard to get myself on top of this project, with school being officially out and all. But I promise you guys we're nearing the end! This is the second to last chapter of this series!! I hope everyone who has read it so far has enjoyed it!

The next few days after that moment went by a bit differently than what used to be Peridot’s “norm” on this planet.

For one, the cell was ditched entirely. Peridot was not given a curfew, but she was still not allowed off of the beach. The Steven had also been given permission to invite humans to the beach to meet Peridot every now and then.

Secondly, Peridot began to learn more about humans as a species. There was apparently this concept known as “gender” present amongst many humans, and the Steven was apparently one of many different species of humans known as “boys”. The Steven was also one of many Stevens on planet Earth, but they were all different, so Peridot dropped the “The” in front of his name.

She also learned of the rebels identities. The skinny gem, whom Peridot had remembered Jasper calling a “defective Pearl”, was actually a Pearl. The short gem was an Amethyst, and the fusion was called Garnet. Peridot had never seen two gems choose to be a fusion permanently ever in her existence, so getting used to Garnet was a challenge for her.

Peridot was being brought on missions, being invited in the gems’ conversations, and was still forced to play with Steven. But Steven was a lot more tolerable, Peridot found, for he was trying less to make her like the planet and more trying to make her have fun. Peridot was experiencing such new and exciting things.

She **_hated_** it.

Of course, she never _told_ anyone she hated it, but she hated it silently. When all the rebels would play with Peridot and Steven, her laughs were laced with hatred. At night, when Steven went to bed and the gems went into the temple, she often thought of walking into Steven’s room and strangling him just to end this never-ending cycle of false smiles and internal misery.

Only at night would you see Peridot’s face twist into a sickly grimace. Only at night would you see her try to hack into the nearby internet system so she can learn directions to the Kindergarten. Only at night would you see her desperately trying to keep her loyalty to Homeworld. To keep her black and white perspective.

But it’s hard to remain loyal to something that has so much evil behind it.

When the gems would talk about Homeworld and the “travesties” they committed, Peridot _tried_ her best not to listen. When they would pass by old gem fighting grounds, Peridot would _try_ not to look at the damage Homeworld gems caused.  

But no matter how hard she _tried_ she couldn’t help but begin to realize how bad Homeworld is. Her home planet, the only thing she’s ever cared about, has actually been nothing but a violent, destructive, greedy planet that has eliminated countless species on countless planets just to suck their planet dry of their resources.

Peridot’s whole life was crumbling apart. And soon enough, she was too.

Today would signal the last straw being used.

“Where are we?” Peridot asked, looking around the area they had just warped to. The sky was dark and the earth below the warp pad looked barren and dead. All around Peridot she could see overturned stones and pits. So much rubble. So much death.

“Gem Graveyard.” Garnet answered, stepping off of the warp pad.

“This was where we fought our final battle against Homeworld,” Pearl said to Steven, “This is also where... most of the gems were killed.” Pearl looked extremely uneasy in this place. Peridot wondered what sort of scenes Pearl was reliving as she looked around this place.

“W-Well, what are we doing here?” Steven asked Pearl nervously. Garnet summoned her gauntlets and turned around.

“I sensed something enter here, and I thought it was best if we all checked it out.” Garnet said before walking ahead of the group. Amethyst hopped off the warp pad.

“Ugh, this place looks more dead than the Kindergarten…” Amethyst commented before summoning her whip and running after Garnet. Pearl turned to Steven and summoned her spear.

“Steven, I’m going to go on ahead with Garnet and Amethyst and scope things out. Stay here with Peridot.” She instructed.

“Awww! But I wanted to help!” Steven whined. Pearl placed her hand on his head and tilted his head up.

“This place is _very_ dangerous, Steven. There are large holes and weak spots in the ground. If you aren’t careful, you could step on one of the weak spots and fall to your death. Only Garnet and I know where these weak spots are. I want you to stay here with Peridot on the warp pad. Do not leave the warp pad, understand?” Pearl explained. Steven nodded glumly at Pearl’s request. She then turned to Peridot with a slightly sterner look.

“Be sure that Steven doesn’t leave the warp pad.” She said. Peridot nodded and Pearl ran off the pad and after the other two gems.

Thus leaving Steven and Peridot alone in this desolate area.

Steven looked up at Peridot and smiled awkwardly.

“So...uh….how’s your day been?” He asked, trying to lighten the mood.

“This is where the last battle was fought…” Peridot thought aloud, feelings of dread and intrigue coursing through her whole body. Steven looked at the ground.

“Yeah...and now it’s a gem graveyard…” He replied sullenly. Peridot’s head quickly turned to Steven, a hidden fire blazing in her eyes.

“You want to know what happened here, right?” She questioned. Steven looked up at her, slightly scared at her sudden energy, and nodded slowly. Peridot grasped his hand quickly and jumped off the warp pad.

“Then let’s go!” She said before taking off down the same route the other gems did. Steven was being dragged behind as Peridot raced across the ground, head darting everywhere in search of something. Steven looked ahead and saw a large hole about five feet in front of them.

“Peridot! Stop!!” He shouted. Peridot didn’t listen, but continued to run. He looked at the hole approaching him and gulped before grabbing onto Peridot’s hair.

“I said **_STOP_**!!” He screamed, tugging back on her hair. Peridot yelped and halted. She whipped back around to Steven with an angry look.

“Why did you pull on my hair?!” She demanded to know. Steven sternly pointed at the hole in front of them.

“You almost got us both killed!” He exclaimed. Peridot turned back around to where he was pointing and saw the hole. She had stopped only mere inches away from the hole’s edge. She looked down the hole and saw jagged rocks pointing up from the ground. If she were to have fallen, she would have killed Steven and more than likely cracked her gem. She gulped and took a few steps back.

“I’m sorry,” She said, “I was just...I just wanted to see what had happened here…What finally pushed Homeworld back for good…” Steven held Peridot’s hand tenderly and smiled up at her.

“It’s okay, you were just excited. I get like that too…” He replied.

“Well I’m sure you haven’t almost killed anyone whilst being excited…” Peridot answered. Steven snorted. Peridot looked at him with a half grin. “What’s with the laughing?” She asked.

“One time, I almost pushed Connie over the railing of my steps because Pearl had  said she found more Cookie Cats at the store. She got reaaally mad at me for that and wouldn’t talk to me for a week.” He explained. Peridot let out a little laugh at his story. Despite Peridot’s feelings for all the gems, she couldn’t deny that this boy’s enthusiasm and attitude was highly contagious.

“Welp, I guess we should head back now,” Steven noted, “Wouldn’t want to almost run into anymore potholes, now do we?” Peridot nodded and began to walk back with Steven until an idea popped into her head, halting her movements.

“What if we didn’t _walk_ around?” Peridot wondered. Steven turned to her and laughed.

“Peridot, we can’t do anything _but_ walk.” Steven reminded her. Peridot grinned.

“No,” She replied, “ _you_ can’t do anything but walk.” Suddenly the fingers on her right hand started to spin rapidly around the end of her arm. Peridot raised that arm in the air and she began to float off the ground. “ _I_ can fly.” She added smugly. Steven looked up at her, eyes full of wonder.

“Woooow.” He commented in awe. Peridot reached her other hand out to him.

“Want to come with?” She asked. Steven nodded his head feverishly and grabbed Peridot’s hand. Peridot pulled him up to her chest and wrapped her whole arm around his waist before taking off higher into the sky.

Peridot looked down at the ground below her while Steven looked at the sky in amazement. She looked focused and very serious in this moment as she squinted to look at specific landmarks below her. She saw the bright blue circle of the warp pad and kept that specific area in her memory for later.

They flew for a while until Peridot saw many holes lined up one after the other for miles on. She decided here would be the best place to find information. She descended to that area. Steven looked down once they began to descend and laughed nervously.

“Um, that place looks a bit, uh, _hole_ -y, don’t ya think?” He asked nervously. Peridot did not pay attention and continued to land.

They landed near the first set of holes and Peridot placed Steven on the ground carefully. She walked away from Steven and started to inspect each hole. Most of them looked like they were just pieces of torn up ground from cannon fire or large attacks. Some of them Peridot could just barely see small piles of gem shards.

She tried not to look at those holes.

She continued to scan each hole for clues as to what might have happened here, until she heard Steven screech. She quickly turned around to see him looking down some of the holes in the row in front of hers. She ran quickly over to him and grabbed his shoulder.

“Steven, what’s wrong?!” She asked, concern laced through her voice. His whole body was trembling as he turned back to Peridot, his eyes full of tears.

“L-Look…” Steven whimpered. Peridot looked past Steven to the hole and gasped.

Skeletons piled up in large piles filled this hole almost halfway. Peridot felt a hole form in her gut and a shiver coursed through her body. These weren’t gem corpses.

No, they were _humans_. _Human_ lives were taken in a _gem_ war. Peridot looked closely at how they were piled up.

There was absolutely no regard to decency in how they were buried. They were just tossed into a hole and abandoned. Did gems really not care about human life? Did these older gems not realize how disrespectful this display was?

Peridot shook away those thoughts. No, she shouldn’t be feeling like this. Gems did what they had to do. Obviously if humans were killed then they were dumb enough to run into the fight, Peridot had concluded to herself. She shouldn’t be feeling _sympathy_ for these creatures, she should feel disgusted by the fact that they had disrupted a gem dispute.

So then _why_ did she feel pity for this creature?

“My dad told me that humans were lost in this war too….But I didn’t a-actually think-” Steven cut himself off, tears suddenly streaming down his face. He tried wiping them away, but they just kept falling. Peridot turned to Steven and frowned. She knelt down and hugged him tightly.

“Shhh, it’s alright,” Peridot whispered, “Please don’t cry. Everything is alright.” Steven pushed her away.

“No! It isn’t alright!” Steven shouted, “These were innocent lives lost! They didn’t deserve it!!” He started hiccuping as more tears poured down his chubby cheeks.

“N-No one d-deserved it…” He whispered, clutching his pants tightly as he cried. Steven turned away from the hole and sat down, hunching over to cry more. Peridot felt sharp pangs of sadness throughout her being as she watched Steven’s sobbing form.

She turned back around and looked at the piles of bones in disgust.

“Who...who could have done this?” Peridot muttered bitterly, “Was this….Homeworld’s doing?” She felt anger boil up inside of her. These poor humans; just wiped out of existence and then treated like trash. Peridot felt disgust at the very thought of being associated with such _barbarians_ that would do something so _horrendous_ to such an _innocent_ beings.

But wait, hasn’t Homeworld been doing this to every other planet they’ve encountered?

Peridot pondered on that thought, and suddenly the realization hit her like a tidal wave.

That _**has**_ been what Homeworld has been doing. For millennia this has been happening. Homeworld has been taking over worlds and eradicating its native life, just for _resources_. Pesky nutrients needed for making worker gems, such as Peridot.

Peridot had worshipped Homeworld for this. She _worked_ for Homeworld to achieve these goals.

Never had she actually seen the consequences of her work. And, now that she’s seen it, she never wants to see anything like this ever again.

“P-Peridot?” Peridot shook herself out of her thoughts at the sound of Steven’s voice. She turned back around to Steven and saw him, now standing, looking at her with very frightened and very startled eyes. She hadn’t noticed what she had been doing while she was thinking, but Steven turned around and saw her violently trembling with her gem glowing.

“What?” Peridot replied a tad harshly. Steven cringed at her tone.

“A-Are you okay?” Steven muttered. Peridot turned back around and looked at the hole full of bones, hate rising back into her body. She pointed at the hole with her arm and her fingers moved away from the end. A ball of light started to form in the middle of the end of her arm and, without any hesitation, fired a laser into the hole. Steven screamed as a large explosion formed inside the hole, incinerating the bones down to mere ash. Peridot watched the explosion emotionlessly.

Once the smoke had cleared and the damage was done, Peridot mechanically grabbed Steven and flew back to the warp pad. Just as Peridot expected, the rest of the rebels came rushing to the warp pad soon after and questioned whether they had heard or seen the explosion and what might have caused it. Peridot quickly answered before Steven could, telling the gems that they heard the explosion but did not see what had caused it. Steven thought it would be best not to disagree with Peridot and reveal that Peridot was the reason for the explosion.

The gems quickly warped back home and began discussing what they had discovered before the crash. Steven tried his best to keep his mouth shut, not wanting to reveal that him and Peridot had broken the rule of not leaving the warp pad and were ultimately the cause of the explosion. The rebels spoke amongst themselves, leaving Peridot to her own thoughts.

Night fell, leaving Peridot entirely alone on the couch. Steven had gone to bed and the other rebels had gone into the temple to their own rooms to gather their thoughts and have their personal time. In these darkest of hours Peridot sat, in the middle of an internal warfare between what she has known her entire existence and what she is now discovering.

**  
** What she will have experienced in this stillborn moment in time is known as an epiphany. This epiphany, however, would not inspire a dawn of resolution and good in Peridot. What this epiphany would inspire was **_despair_**.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Gem Graveyard is a place purely of my own imagination. I actually don't remember if the Strawberry Fields were where the last battle took place, but if it was then just remember that most of this isn't canon either way. Especially after Keeping It Together.


	6. A Fleeting Comet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ITS THE END!! AHHHHHH!!! I'm so glad so many people stuck around until this shocking finale!!! I hope you all stick around for more of my work! This was so much fun to write and I just loved writing this concept out fully!!!

It is, at this time in our tale, that I would like to shed some light on this small moment in Peridot’s tale of re-discovery. You see, for the next few hours Peridot would go into a state almost like comatose, but in her head it would be as close to living as she would get. Her thoughts were scrambled up into one catastrophic mess. Each aspect of herself was being torn to shreds by her new thoughts. Old battled new. Black battled white.

All that remained in the ashes of the battle was a large splatter of gray and a new perspective on her life.

“I...I was…. _wrong_ ,” Peridot mumbled after quite some time, “I was so….very **_wrong_** …” She stood and began pacing around the room.

“We were all so wrong. Everyone on Homeworld is wrong. They were never the monsters…” She ran her hands through her hair angrily, “ _We_ were.” Her mind was racing, unable to process anything anymore. Tears were falling to the floor, unnoticed by Peridot while she paced back and forth and repeated the same phrase.

_We were the monsters. We were the monsters. We were the monsters._

Peridot screamed in horror and frustration, jostling awake little Steven who was upstairs. He sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes, looking past his bed and over the ledge to see what was causing all the commotion. He saw Peridot pacing around a talking to herself. He got up out of bed and carefully walked downstairs, not wanting to make his presence known to Peridot.

“I...I’ve been the menace all along,” Peridot said to herself, “The whole time I thought it was everyone else, but in reality its been me. I’m no better than a pile of dirt! I’m a dirty _dirty_ creature!! Broken beyond repair by my twisted views and ideologies!!” Peridot grasped at her hair and pulled hard, causing her to shriek in pain and recoil. Steven watched in shock and confusion.

“P-Peridot?” Steven called out nervously. Peridot quickly turned around and looked at Steven. Steven got a glimpse of what Peridot looked like in this moment.

In short, she looked like a mess. Her hair was messy and disheveled. Her eyes were blood-shot and streaming with tears, and her facial expression was one of pained sadness and anger-induced self-loathing.

“Go away, Steven. You don’t need to see this.” Peridot said harshly. Steven stepped closer to her and she recoiled away from him.

“Peridot...what’s wrong? Are you still upset over what we saw at the Gem Graveyard? It’s okay to be upset over it but you have to get over i-”

“-NO. I CAN’T JUST FORGIVE WHAT HOMEWORLD DID TO THIS PLANET. NOT ANYMORE.” Peridot shouted, cutting Steven off as she stepped toward him, “I….I’m a disgrace to gem kind….I let these travesties befall other planets...Instead of fighting back, like Rose Quartz...I’m not good enough to be accepted by you gems...I’m the dirt amongst glittering gold…” Peridot turned around and walked toward the door.

“W-Wait! What are you doing?!” Steven called out. Peridot turned her head and looked at him.

“I’m doing what needs to be done. I’m going to find the Kindergarten and make sure I get caught by Garnet, Pearl, and Amethyst so they can take me out of my misery…” Peridot explained in a serious tone before opening the door. Steven gasped and ran to Peridot, grabbed her leg and pulling her back inside.

“No! I’m not going to let you do that!!” Steven shouted, using all of his strength to drag Peridot back inside and to the couch. Peridot struggled against him and broke free from his grasp.

“Why are you so insistent on keeping me here?! Don’t you know for every second I exist now I will be tortured by my endless memories of mistakes I’ve made?! I don’t deserve to live anymore!! I want to die Steven!! Just let me _die_!!!” Peridot shouted. Steven stood shocked at her statement before grabbing her again and pulling her close.

“I’m keeping you here because I care about you, Peridot!! You _do_ deserve to live!! You are so amazing and you don’t even realize it!! So you made a couple mistakes, it’s not entirely your fault! That’s what you thought was right, and following your heart is the only way to succeed in life! You have the opportunity now to change it all around!! Stay here and help us!! Tell us what Homeworld’s planning!! Be our guide! We need you more than you know, so please don’t leave!!” Steven cried out.

Peridot looked down at him. He looked back up at her, hoping to see shock on her face from her realizing how stupid she was thinking.

Instead, he looked at dead eyes. Dead eyes with an idea hatched behind them.

Without warning, Peridot grabbed Steven by the collar of his shirt and lifted him into the air. Steven wriggled around in her grasp. Peridot looked coldly at him.

“Fine. If you won’t let me dispose myself that way, then I’ll just have to come up with another way.” She said sternly before taking her other hand and wrapping the fingers around Steven’s neck, squeezing down on the soft flesh.

Steven could feel his windpipe being cut off from the oxygen around him, and he began thrashing wildly and gasping for air. As Peridot was doing this, the gems had come through the temple door and saw this scene happening before their very eyes. The gems immediately felt hatred and betrayal boil in themselves as they drew their weapons.

“Peridot!!” Garnet called out viciously. Peridot turned and saw them, and the faintest of smiles could be seen on her face before she bolted out the door. The gems took chase and followed her outside to the beach.

Peridot didn’t go far, mainly because she didn’t feel the need to. When she got outside, Steven broke free and fell unceremoniously to the ground. He looked back up at Peridot as he inhaled deeply, tears present in his childlike eyes.

“Peridot...p-please...don’t do this…” Steven wheezed out. Peridot opened her mouth to respond, but the other rebels interrupted her by rushing out the door and jumping onto the sand. Peridot grabbed Steven once more and backed away from the gems.

“One more step and he dies!” Peridot threatened. The gems took her seriously and stopped advancing toward her. Peridot dropped Steven again. Steven stood up immediately and faced Peridot.

“Peridot please end this!!” Steven pleaded. Peridot ignored Steven and looked on ahead at the rebels.

“We trusted you Peridot, how could you do this?!” Amethyst asked in disbelief.

“She never changed! I knew she never could!” Pearl said.

“Peridot, let Steven go and we can settle this quietly!” Garnet called out. Peridot shook her head at Garnet’s request.

“I can’t do that!! I’ve done too much evil in my existence...so I have to go out the same way I came in. As a _monster_ …” Peridot explained, grabbing Steven by the throat once more. Steven began choking as he clawed at Peridot’s arms, wheezing out pleads for her to stop.

But there was no stopping her now. She had a mission, and Peridot was known for completing her missions no matter what.

Garnet wasted no time in charging after Peridot once she began choking him. Peridot watched her charging form in delight. Finally, she was going to get what she wanted. She looked up at the sky and watched the stars glittering like tiny diamonds in the sky. Almost like they were trying to cast this tragic event in a positive light. Peridot smiled, these stars would always be here. Always be the guide for others. Just like she thought she was; a guide to a better Homeworld.

In the end, Peridot learned, she was nothing more than a comet. Beautiful, but fleeting, and dangerous to those surrounding it. Peridot pushed Steven out of the way once Garnet was close enough and closed her eyes, smiling peacefully.

“Finally…” Peridot whispered. Garnet took one last step before CRACK!

.

.

.

“ _ **PERIDOT!!!!!!!**_ ”

.

.

.

There are some people who were destined for greatness. These people are usually the most blind. The most ignorant. For ignorance leads the way to blind succession, as they see nothing wrong about them. There are also some people who were destined for nothing. These people are usually the most wise, for with failure comes learning. And with years learning becomes wisdom.

The thing is with people who were destined for greatness is that they never truly reach it. Their blind perspective leaves them always wanting more, until finally they have nothing left to gain and they give it all away. Leaving them with nothing but their newly-formed horrid memories and self-loathing. The people who were destined for nothing are usually the ones who become great. With their wisdom they make themselves better. Make their path wider, and soon enough they reach the top, looking pitifully on the “great” people below.

 **  
** Peridot was one of those people who were destined to be great. And, just like many others before her, she came to know too quickly what greatness cost. She was just a fleeting comet in this sky of **stars**.


End file.
